The Mechanic

Mechanics are your best completers. They will wrap up the process and find smart ways to do it better next time. Don’t ask a mechanic to start from scratch but give them an existing process or product to improve on. They work fine on their own and often find social situations uncomfortable. They are perfectionists, which is why they cannot resist finding ways to do things better.

One of Henry Ford’s maxims was: “Everything can always be done better than it is being done.”

Mechanics tinker. They get hands-on with their systems and prefer to study how to improve things with their hands dirty. As a result, they have little interest in impressing with or indulging in their appearance. Mechanics can quietly tinker in the background on their own, taking apart and putting together things that already exist. They are much more comfortable with measurable things like data and details than complicated things like people and their emotions.

What they build tends to be built to last. Endless perfectionists, the Mechanics will keep finding ways to improve their system or process, making things simple and smart, whatever the product or service they deliver – whether it is cars, burgers or internet search.

Successful Mechanics have overcome their need to be involved with everything and have focused all their efforts on the engine of the business, while others look after the styling and upholstery. As they pass over people management to others and focus on efficient operations, they find their flow. After all, it’s easier to fix a process than to fix a person.

Mechanics get into flow by bringing order to chaos. They get fulfilment from completion and a job well done, so they get into flow by having a series of smaller projects to complete than one large activity that is never done.